Missing Pieces
by RoseAmongstThorns
Summary: Every year on her birthday, Rose Weasley wishes for the same thing. Her missing jigsaw pieces. Written for EvylinDevilin's Choose Your Path challenge.


"Dear Santa,

I know it's April, so I hope I'm not waking you. I really liked the jigsaw you got me for Christmas, but I lost a piece. It's the man's head. I know, it's depressing. Mum says that you can't help, but it's worth a shot, right?

I think it might have been stolen, so can you send a police man. James says I'm being silly and that police men don't come for puzzle pieces. And no one would steal a jigsaw piece he says.

I know you probably have loads to do, but it is my birthday. I really would like the missing piece of my puzzle. It's left incomplete on my desk, so I can't do any homework, but I don't mind that part. But Mum says I'm being stupid, and Molly said you don't exist so I'll never finish. But you do exist, right? Well of course you do, or else I'm a complete plonker talking to myself, which I'm not.

Although, I suppose I'm not normal, I've never been normal. I wish for the same thing each year, because every Christmas I get a puzzle and lose one piece, and it's always a piece with the man's head. Freaky or what? I'm rambling aren't I?

Sorry Santa,

But seriously, can I have the missing puzzle piece this year?

Amen."

)O(

"Dear Santa,

It's me again. I'm really sorry if I'm waking you, but you should be used to it by now, and in my Christmas letter I reserved a slot, remember? Eight O'clock on the 5th April 2015. Please don't tell me you forgot, Santa! Thank you for my new puzzle this Christmas, it's resting on a board on top on my last one, but I lost another piece.

It's the man's head, again. But you probably already knew that. It's quite predictable. Teddy says I'm the most predictable thing there is, but that's just because he's the least predictable person in the universe. His hair's purple now- no, wait- it's green with red stripes. Teddy's really cool; his birthday is the – erm – 18th April. He says he wants a girlfriend, but doesn't he already have Victoire? I don't think he's allowed two girlfriends, is he? When Uncle Charlie had two girlfriends, they weren't very happy about it, and Grandma wouldn't let him eat dinner.

Do you have a jigsaw-piece-maker at the North Pole, Santa? Because I haven't got my other one's yet. Oh well, there's a first for everything, right?

Can I please have my missing piece for my birthday?

Amen."

)O(

"Dear Santa,

Bonjour! Aunt Fleur is teaching me French. Can you speak French? Désolé si je vous réveiller. Is that right? Oh well, I don't really care, I'll just speak English instead. Sorry if I'm waking you, but really you should be used to it, it is the 8 O'clock on April 5th. You can't have forgotten, I've been doing this since I was 5. Thank you for my newest puzzle, it's, once again, on my desk. But I have, of course, lost a piece.

Guess which one?

The man's head, obviously.

I'm ten today, so this means that you owe me five pieces, because I swear they're not there in the first place! Albus says I'm crazy, that I need to get out more and stop talking to my 'imaginary friend', which I guess id true. You kind of are my imaginary friend, but you're real so the whole imaginary part is a load of rubbish.

Can I pretty please the missing piece of my puzzle this year?

Amen."

)O(

"Dear Santa,

It's me again. Am I bugging you? Hugo says I'm bugging you. But Hugo doesn't know that, does he? I mean, I can't be bugging you because I only talk to you twice a year. Unless something _really _important comes up. Like when Molly wanted her hair to be brown again, but she couldn't change it back. That was an emergency. Or when Hugo went missing. Well that wasn't _too _bad, but mum got really worried. Then Dad got really worried, so he got all frustrated and shouty.

Enough about that. I'm eleven now! I'm going to Hogwarts! But once again I come to you and ask for the same thing, like I do every year.

I'm missing a piece to my puzzle.

The man's head.

I really need it, Santa, so I can complete my puzzle's before I go to Hogwarts.

I can't just leave them incomplete on my desk.

Can I please have the missing piece for my puzzle?

Amen."

)O(

"James is probably right," Rose muttered out loud to herself. "I am a loony. I mean, I'm eighteen today for God's sake! And here I am praying to Santa, asking for the same thing since I was five. It's not even Christmas!" She knelt down next to her bed, and tucked a loose strand of curly red hair behind her ear. Putting her hands together, she began with the same words she'd used on the 5th of April at 8 O'clock of the past 13 years:

"Dear Santa,

I honestly don't know why I'm still doing this, but if all this praying has a reason, then, I'm sorry if I'm waking you, but you should know better than to be sleeping at 8 O'clock on April 5th. I still really appreciate all the jigsaw puzzles, but now I have 13 incomplete ones on my desk at home and it's really bugging my mum. She says she'll throw them away if I don't finish them soon. I can't let her do that, Santa! I really love those jigsaw's; they're a part of me!

I really should make this short, Al's friend Scorpius Malfoy is just next door, I don't want him to have another excuse for thinking I'm a nutter; he already calls me Hatter.

Can I please have the missing piece to my puzzle this year?

Amen."

)O(

"Rose! Pass me some toast, will you?" Lucy asked. Rose obliged, and tossed her a fairly alright piece of toast. "When's the mail getting here?" she asked Hugo.

"You'd know the answer, Lucy Loo, if you bothered to look up, but then again, no one ever looks up." Hundreds of owls now graced the space above the hall, each looking for their owners. Rose had always been fascinated by the owls. How did they know who to go to? How did they know where to go? How did they know where someone was at a particular time? How did they know the way home? Rose's brain was always filled with questions. Most of those questions never got an answer, but she liked the element of mystery. She was strange, people told her. She was madder than the Hatter, Scorpius told her. She didn't really mind, she liked being strange. Being normal was, in Rose's opinion, really boring. Who would want to be normal if it meant you followed the crowd, like a sheep? Rose had nothing against sheep though, she just thought they were quite stupid. Always living someone else's life by following the crowd, and never doing what they want, like they stopped being themselves. Rose was snapped out of her train of Hatter-worthy (as Scorpius called them) thoughts when a small parcel, tied with blue string, was dropped into her lap by a large snowy owl, who's beady yellow eyes were heavily focused on Lucy's toast ("In your dreams, owl!") Rose carefully undid the neat knot in the blue string and a small note was released.

In tiny calligraphy it wrote:

'_Rose Weasley,_

_Sorry they're late. You can keep the owl,_

_Your 'imaginary' friend.'_

Rose opened the paper parcel with trembling fingers, hoping, really truly hoping, she knew what was in there. Thirteen tiny 'squares' tumbled into her hands, each with a face. The same face. A very familiar face. Not the face on the box's. No. This was the face of Scorpius Malfoy. Someone must be pranking her. She looked around sharply. No one was laughing. She flipped the piece of paper over, expecting to see the word '_Gotcha_', or something along that line. Instead, in even smaller, curlier handwriting was the words '_You wanted the missing piece of _your _puzzle, didn't you?' _

"I didn't mean it literally!" she shouted aloud accidently. The whole hall looked at her. She chuckled nervously, "Er, I'm going to – um – go." She grabbed a slice of toast, shoved it in to her mouth, and ran out of the Great Hall, towards the Heads Dormitories.

"Hey Hatter!" the one person she didn't want to see greeted her from their sofa.

"Scorpius," she said, avoiding him as best as she could.

"Whoa, Hatter, you seem almost _normal _today! What happened?" he asked. She passed him the jigsaw pieces. "Cool!" he said happily examining his face in each one of them. "Where'd you get these?"

"Santa."

"Aren't you a little old to believe in Santa?"

"No! Every year on my birthday, since I was five, I've asked him for the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle I got each year. I must have phrased it wrong and he gives me your ugly mutt."

He gasped in mock-hurt, "Hatter, I'm offended!"

She ignored him and carried on talking, "It's be a prank or something, the pieces obviously aren't going to fit."

"You have to check, though."

So she did.

And all the missing pieces fitted perfectly into place.

Every single one.

* * *

**A/N: This was written for EvylinDevilin's Choose Your Path Challenge over at HPFC (Check it Out!)**

**I started writting this while watching the season finale of Doctor Who yesterday (Which was amazing!) and I got this idea from when little Amy Pond prays to Santa to get the crack in her wall fixed. **

**Hope ya like it :)**


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